In this issue
Fast Facts — 2002 highlights
Giving — Quotable
Going — 'Xtreme' teams looking for a few good men

Mark your calendar — Missionary appoint-ment service ... Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization: China
Who will lead them?
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Fast facts
2002 highlights

• 8,369 new churches, an increase of 42.5 percent over 2001

• 9,862 new outreach groups, an increase of 44.1 percent

• 369,069 new believers enrolled in discipleship training, an increase of 40.8 percent

• 421,436 baptisms, an increase of 8.7 percent

• 138 new unreached people groups engaged by IMB personnel

• 22 major urban centers unreached by the gospel also engaged for the first time

• 5,376 personnel serving overseas at the end of the year

Giving
Quotable
"With literally thousands of missionaries in the pipeline seeking appointment, it's our heart's desire to send just as many as God will allow us to send. It is important that we understand the challenge we are facing today." —John Hatch of Lake Jackson, Texas, IMB trustee finance committee chairman

Great reports present a new challenge: How to pay for the surge of Southern Baptists going as missionaries. Southern Baptists give more each year to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®. But will small increases be enough to fund the 400 new missionaries expected to be appointed in 2003? No, an 18.7 percent increase ($21.3 million) in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is needed.

Going
‘Xtreme’ teams looking for a few good men
Know anyone who could endure humid jungles, long hikes and altitudes of 17,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains? Is he also a Southern Baptist between 21 and 30 with a passion for reaching the lost? Tell him about “Xtreme teams.” These teams will go to remote areas of western South America to help start church-planting movements among the 76 people groups there that have never been exposed to the gospel.

For more information on joining an Xtreme team, e-mail Chris Ammons at goXtreme@imb.org or visit thextremeteam.org .

To commit to pray for the teams, e-mail prayXtreme@imb.org

Mark your calendar
Missionary appointment service
Do you live within a two-hour drive of Knoxville, Tenn.? Mark your calendar to attend the missionary appointment service at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at First Baptist Concord in Knoxville. Arrive before 6:15 p.m. for a special missions walkaround.
Find other missions events and speakers coming to your area.

Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization: the Chinese
June 8, Pentecost Sunday, lead your church in praying for the people of the world’s most populous nation.

• Lift up the millions of Chinese who have yet to hear the gospel.

• Pray that the church-planting movements already sweeping some parts of China will move across this great nation.

• Pray for the Chinese Christians who already are being called as missionaries and fanning out into neighboring countries.

Order the free video, A Door of Opportunity: Loving the Chinese, and other resources on China.

Who will lead them?
Look beneath the surface of a church-planting movement and you’ll find that new believers are expected to become witnesses immediately—and quickly become leaders, disciplers and church planters as they mature. But can they do it? Ask Charity “Chat” Remedios, a Filipina member of the IMB’s Manila Students Team. Recently, one of Chat’s Bible study groups asked to have a worship service on their first spiritual birthday. Chat was overjoyed and began organizing it. The group wanted to observe the Lord’s Supper, and Chat readily agreed, assuming that she would lead it. However, she soon learned that Jean, the leader of the group of new believers, already had everything planned. When Chat asked how Jean knew what to do, she replied, “I read it in the Bible.” As Jean led the group in partaking the Lord’s Supper, Chat watched in amazement, realizing again that God really can take young Christians and use them in a mighty way to lead others. Pray for these new believers. 

Read more about church-planting movements.

“A Southern Baptist Convention entity supported by the Cooperative Program
and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®.”

®Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is a registered trademark of Woman’s Missionary Union.